Friday, March 11, 2011

"Tall buildings tambalendose, people crying"

Nature has beaten Japan with full force. The country has been paralyzed by the strong earthquake registered today. Dozens injured and at least 60 deaths have been recorded by the earthquake of 8.9 magnitude on the Richter scale. The newspaper El Pais has obtained testimony from several Spanish residents in Japan who have experienced moments of panic for several hours.

Bea is the case of Prieto, who has spent 10 years living in Japan. "I've never experienced one that big," said the Spanish who lives in Yokohama, not far from the industrial area of \u200b\u200bTokyo. "A few times I saw black smoke from my balcony. The first earthquake caught me on the street, returning home from work, and at first I thought I was getting dizzy because I could not walk straight.

But when I heard some children mourn coming behind me and yell "earthquake", I realized that what was moving was the ground "Fernán Izquierdo, also from the Japanese capital, agrees that this is not an earthquake in Japan:" The feeling has been impressive, tall buildings swaying, the Japanese people about my work in tears and pale, none had experienced an earthquake like this before.

" He continues: "The subway and trains are stopped. The roads with lots of cars and queues at bus stops. The streets filled with people who have to go home on foot. A Japanese of my work has to walk three hours to home. All flights have landed and on TV does not leave anything other than the earthquake.

The Internet phones will not go, but yes. "David Solanes Venzal also refers to the situation of collapse that lives behind the very strong earthquake." The phones do not go. Trains do not go, "he says. This Spanish-speaking residents in Japan on his twitter" a festival of replicas. A démontrer Fernando, who lives in Osaka, far from the epicenter, has caught at home.

As he explained to this newspaper via Facebook: "I was caught in his pajamas and when I saw the shaking went on and that the building sagged too I've put the pants, I took the wallet, money and cell phone and I downloaded the six plants stairs. When I reached the street all seemed quiet, until a trader has gone out of a shop front and tells me that in the north has bundled brown.

I've been all afternoon watching television hallucinating. "Ana San Gabriel has written from Kyobashi. He was in his company when the earthquake occurred." We hung unable to return home. The metro and the train does not work. There are constant repetitions and do not work or phones or alarms are activated.

In the street there are many people walking and car jams. The earthquake was very long and some of our ceilings have been dropped. The elevators do not work so the offices of the higher floors are difficult to access. The windows of some nearby buildings have burst. But we have seen the police fortify pedestrian overpasses.

"Ruy Porto, architect, 28, was in his studio in Tokyo working when everything started to shake and had to hold the shelves to keep them from falling over." Two days ago there was an earthquake and we would like, but then followed, and everyone said it was the strongest he had ever felt.

"What has surprised him most is that the Japanese would not have taken very serious and even have continued to work despite the constant aftershocks. After work, has had to walk home because his bike has been given to a partner. "I have luck because I live close to work but my partner would take seven foot hours to reach home.

"The shutdown of the subway is more chaos that has occurred in Japan's capital." There were many people walking the streets and traffic jams on all sides. "Rui is happy to have experienced anything like this in a city \u200b\u200blike Tokyo. "It's the best place in the world to pass you something, because the security level is very high.

An earthquake of this magnitude anywhere else would have caused much more destruction. "Matthew Albert, a structural engineer, knows Miyagi, one of the cities hardest hit by the earthquake. He spent two years there studying earthquake-resistant structures. Today he works in Tokyo and in a meeting, while designing a building, where he was struck by the tremor.

"The swing has gone from weak to strong and, when I thought that was the peak of the earthquake, I saw that was wrong, it was just the beginning." Outside, from the windows, saw buildings swaying, shaking windows and an elevated roadway ranging. When finished, everyone has left the building running.

"My boss has taken his papers, has closed the meeting and has risen to the first taxi to the house. Wise decision, because in the next 5 minutes and there was no free taxi was total chaos." He has had to use the most effective means of transport on a day like today: his legs. "In the streets were office workers buying sneakers and heels, leaving their bags in preparation for the big trip.

The scrum of people is incredible." "Things like that make the buildings have endured hours and hours worth of work to design buildings as safe as we have been saved," he told. However, some witnesses have told El Pais that people try to return to normal life slowly, at least in Tokyo, where the earthquake is a relative calm in the streets.

"Right now the situation in Tokyo is almost normal, except that people are walking down the street rather than take the subway home," says Unai Mujika Torrontegi. Solanes also says that now "to unwind."

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